Ah! ever I behold
Thy dreamy, passionate eyes,
Blue as the languid skies
Hung with the sunset's fringe of gold;
Now strangely clear thine image grows,
And olden memories
Are startled from their long repose
Like shadows on the silent snows
When suddenly the night-wind blows
Where quiet moonlight lies.
Like music heard in dreams,
Like strains of harps unknown,
Of birds for ever flown,–
Audible as the voice of streams
That murmur in some leafy dell,
I hear thy gentlest tone,
And Silence cometh with her spell
Like that which on my tongue doth dwell,
When tremulous in dreams I tell
My love to thee alone!
In every valley heard,
Floating from tree to tree,
Less beautiful to me,
The music of the radiant bird,
Than artless accents such as thine
Whose echoes never flee!
Ah! how for thy sweet voice I pine:–
For uttered in thy tones benign
(Enchantress!) this rude name of mine
Doth seem a melody!
The Poe poem was incomplete. It must have had a first page that didn’t say what the sender needed to be said.
Still confused, Laura rummaged through her purse for the first poem from earlier that day. The words of Oscar Wilde, Emily Dickinson, and Edgar Allan Poe all taunted her, daring her to piece a meaning together.
“Mason! Can you come out here please?”
Mason strutted out of the bedroom in a pair of teeny tiny teal blue gym shorts. He posed and postured, but fell deadly serious when he saw Laura’s confused expression. “What is it?”
“Did you send these poems to me?”
Mason walked over to the counter and examined the musty pages. “No. I didn’t. I don’t even like Oscar Wilde. Where did these come from?”
“The Wilde poem was from earlier this afternoon at the office. The Dickinson one was left on the car, and the Edgar Allen Poe poem was here on my countertop. I knew something didn’t feel right when we walked in. I figured you must have left them as, I don’t know, some sort of an atonement letter or something romantic somehow. You had sent gifts to the office before, so I didn’t think anything of the poems until now.”
She stared at the pages again, trying desperately to figure out what these three pieces meant and who possibly could have sent them to her.
“Perhaps we shouldn’t stay here tonight. I’ll just call Smith to come back and get us. We can stay at my flat tonight. I don’t want you remaining here in case whoever dropped by decides to again.” Mason started back towards the bedroom to retrieve his clothes and cellphone. “Feel free to pack for as long as you need to until we can figure this thing out.”
Laura nodded. A shiver ran up her spine. Whoever this was had seriously violated her. She wracked her brain trying to remember if she’d seen the envelope on the counter that morning or not. Before that she had spent two days at Mason’s, so she had no clue how long that envelope had been there.
“Look me in the eyes right now. I’m going to ask you one more time: did you leave these poems for me as some sort of prank to rile me up? Because I am not fucking amused.”
“Laura, I swear on everything I have ever loved that I had nothing to do with those.”
Chapter Sixteen
“You want to go where for Christmas?” The clock had been ticking down to the holidays, and Laura Ross was being offered a chance to take an extended vacation through the entire month of December.
“I’d like to take you to Switzerland. Is your passport up to date?” Mason Decker was hoping Laura would take some time for a romantic getaway.
“Mason, I always go see my parents for the holidays. It’s the only time of the year I can get away to see them. It will crush my parents if I bail.”
“Then they can come too.” Mason’s ice blue eyes twinkled with excitement. They were finally at a point in their relationship where he could get her to leave New York for a bit.
Mason always shut down operations for the two weeks of Christmas and New Year’s. This gave his employees uninterrupted family time and him the opportunity to get out of the sleet and cold for a while. He was hoping to extend that to the whole month.
“I don’t know. Dad has his back issue…”
“I’ll give him a call then and see if he and your mum would be up to a flight to Europe.” He held his breath in the hopes she would take the bait.
“Mason, please! I’m not sure I can get away that long, and my dad hates to fly!” A lie, sure, but the reality was she wasn’t so sure if she was ready to spend all that time playing house with him again.
“You can’t tell me your father wouldn’t be gung ho to have spiked hot chocolate and ringli in a place that actually looks like Santa’s Village? He’s a Christmas nut.” Mason fondly recalled a few Christmases with the Ross family, “Remember that one year he was all Clark Griswold the entire night? He was so happy with his decorations that it didn’t matter that the house caught fire a little.”
The apprehension on Laura’s face dampened the playful mood. He didn’t want to go into dom mode, but Laura was being difficult. “Call your parents,” he ordered, and walked away.
Laura stuck her tongue out at his back. Of course she was going to call her parents, after the knot came unraveled in the pit of her stomach.
Yeah, this was just a vacation, but they had been back together less than six months, and spending that much time together under one roof again was scary.
Before she and Mason had broken off their engagement, nearly nine years before, Laura had happily slipped into the role of housewife-to-be. She knew Mason was taking it easy, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that a month away together was his way of test-driving the idea again.
Mason had never given her a reason to feel that way. He didn’t hint at marriage or living together. He had always understood when she wanted to go home and let her without an argument – except for the three strange letters she had received in September. He had forced her to stay with him for ten days in case the invader decided to come back.
It was only when she threatened him with bodily harm that he finally acquiesced and let her go back home.
Outside of those three letters, nothing else had happened. Laura installed new locks and an extra deadbolt on her door, but other than that her life had returned to normal.
She plunked down on her overstuffed leather couch. The fabric felt cool and soothing on the backs of her legs. It helped to calm her scattered thoughts.
She scrolled up and down through her contact list over and over, contemplating whether or not to call her dad. The knobs in her shower squeaked, and the sound of running water echoed into the room.
She and Mason had just had yet another fantastic midday romp. She had particularly enjoyed this one because, for the first time, she’d let Mason use an object on her. She squirmed against the smooth leather to agitate the welts from the paddle. The after-burn was almost as erotic as the act itself. It was a big surprise to her that she had enjoyed such a firm spanking.
“What the hell?” she whispered to herself. She hit the dial button and called her dad. With her parents there as a buffer, life wouldn’t get too awkward, right? The phone rang three times.
“Baby doll! It’s been a little bit. How are ya?”
“Hey, Daddy.” Her father was sunshine for her. She smiled the second she heard his voice. “I’ve been good. Is Ma around, too?”
“Of course! Did you need to talk to her too?”
“Yeah, if you don’t mind, could you grab her and put the phone on speaker, please?”
“Sure. Gimme a sec.” Laura heard the tap as her dad placed the phone down, followed shortly by echoing shouts from across the room.
A minute later he was back.
“I got you on speaker, honey. What’s up?”
“Hi, Laura. I miss you sweetie!” her mom’s baby voice cut in. The woman was in her fifties, but could pass for ten on the phone.
“Hi, Ma. I miss you, too.”
As usual, her mother grabbed the conversation in a chokehold and refused to let go. For a solid fifteen minutes her mom chatted away about everything and nothing. She told Laura about the new family at church, how the early frost had wiped out her tomatoes, and spared no detail about her latest doctor’s appointment. She had apparently had a colonoscopy.
“And the liquid they gave me to drink, my God, it was the most foul thing I have ever tasted. I thought I would actually sh–”
“All right,” her dad interjected, “the girl called us, and I’m sure she didn’t want to hear all about you having the shits or procedure.”
For another couple of minutes, Laura’s parents bickered back and forth. She had to mute her phone as she snorted in amusement.
“Sorry, Laura. You know how your mother is.”
“Hey! Robbie, you bastard.” Somehow her dad had managed to stifle her after that outburst.
“It’s okay, Dad. I just wanted to ask you guys about Christmas. Mason wanted to take a vacation and asked me to invite you guys along too.”
“Oh, honey, I am so happy you and that British boy got back together. You two were so good as a couple. And he’s so handsome!”
“Thanks, Ma.” Even over the phone she was mortified. “I’m glad too. Anyway, Mason wanted to have Christmas in Switzerland. Would you both like to come?” The silence following her question was unnerving. She couldn’t recall either of her parents not speaking for more than three seconds at a time.
“That sounds like fun, baby doll, but your mother and I have plans.”
“What?!” She hadn’t expected that answer. Every year she went to visit. It was their thing. “When were you going to tell me?” Laura whined.
“We were gonna call you this week, Laura,” Joanie explained softly. “Your father won a contest at the office. We’re going to spend five days in Aspen.”
“Yeah. You’d be so proud. I managed to sell the most piping out of everybody there.” She could hear him beaming in his voice. “One of the developers in Springfield was planning to rip up and repave where the roads were the worst. He ordered hundreds of miles of pipe from me because every road is a mess.”
“That’s great, Daddy.” Laura’s heart sank. She had gotten so used to the routine that it never occurred to her that one day, her parents may have something better to do. “I hope you guys have fun on your trip. I’ll try to figure out a time when I can come see you.”
“You too, honey,” Joanie chirped. “I’ve seen pictures. Switzerland looks so romantic this time of the year. I hope you two kids take advantage.”
Laura interjected, “Okay, Ma, Daddy, I love you guys, but I have to go. Mason wants to go to lunch. I’ll talk to you soon!” she lied. That was too close. Laura didn’t think she could handle another lecture about her mother wanting grandkids.
“So, did you call your parents?” Mason suddenly appeared and leaned against the bathroom doorjamb, looking casually sexy wearing nothing but a white towel.
“Yeah.” Laura had to take a second to put her thoughts back together. The towel hung low on his hips, revealing several inches of Adonis. “Um, I’m kind of surprised. They will be on vacation themselves.”
“Really?” Mason was genuinely surprised. The Rosses rarely went anywhere.
“Dad won a trip to Aspen from his job. Looks like it’s just you and me for Switzerland.” She watched a huge smile spread across Mason’s face. “Assuming I can get the time off. Daniel can be a bastard about time requests.”
“Of course. Any time you can get I can work around.” Mason stalked over to the sofa and bent down for a kiss. Laura gripped the back of his neck with one hand and claimed his mouth with hers.
“You naughty girl. I have to get to the office.” Mason grinned at her, his eyes gone sleepy with lust.
Laura hooked the edge of the towel, drawing him in closer. “Looks like you’ll be a little late then,” she declared as she stripped the towel off.
Chapter Seventeen
Laura sat at her desk, gaping at the insane number of emails staring back at her on her screen, ninety percent of which came from either Daniel or her team. “Oh, Monday. How I’ve missed you,” she murmured as she tapped her forehead against her desk.
“Well, they won’t deal with themselves.” She clicked and cleared memo after useless memo. A list of interviews to schedule popped up. Daniel wanted them all on the books by Thanksgiving. Three days was all he was giving her, “You have got to be fucking kidding me.” She split the list in two and printed one for her and one for Michelle. If Daniel needed this done so quickly, she would have to borrow his assistant.
After a quick peek into her coffee cup and the realization that it was woefully empty, she took a trip to the break room. Having to work through lunch was one thing, but having to do it un-caffeinated was not an option.
The remnants of the morning editors’ meeting were laid out across the counter. Three half-stale donuts lay deflated in a torn white box with random smears of jelly and peanut butter decorating the interior. A box of cold, bitter coffee and a stack of Dixie cups sat next to the most promising choice of all. “Ooh, bagels.”
Laura popped a pumpkin spice one between her teeth as she stirred milk into the heavenly black depths of her coffee.
“Hey, Laura. There you are.” Tammy entered the room, pushing her thick black glasses up her nose. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”
Laura removed the bagel from her mouth. “I just needed a quick break. What’s up?”
“There’s an envelope for you at the reception desk.”
The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. “Sure. Let me drop this stuff in my office, and I’ll meet you over there.”
Laura went immediately on guard as she sped back through the halls to her office. Could it be another poem? She had to take a minute to compose herself before seeing Tammy. The walk through the main office was probably the slowest she had ever taken.
“Here you go, Laura,” Tammy handed her a plain manila envelope. The return address smiled up at her. It was from Northampton, her parents.
“Thanks, Tammy.” She popped open the flap and turned the contents out on the counter. Her eyes lit up when her new passport fell out. See? No reason to be so paranoid!
“Why’d you have that delivered here? What’s wrong with your apartment?” Tammy asked.
“I’m not always there. Sometimes I stay at Mason’s. I’m guaranteed to get the important stuff if I have it mailed here.” Lying again. It was true Laura spent half the week at Mason’s, but there was also the lingering fear that someone may still have the urge to go through her stuff. She didn’t want her identity stolen on top of the personal violation.
Laura turned to walk away, but paused. “Oh, before I forget, could you take this list to Michelle for me? If I don’t get moving on this I’ll never get it done in the neurotic time constraint Daniel put on me.”
“Of course. I’m going to lunch with her; I’ll pass it along then.”
“Super. I’ll see you later, and thanks again, Tammy. You rule.” The smile she got from that adorable flame-haired girl perked her sagging day right up.
***
“Laura! How’s my favorite writer doing?” Daniel burst through her office door without knocking, per usual. His exuberance set off her bullshit detector.
“I’m fine. What can I do for you, Daniel?” She set aside her list and pen to give her boss her full attention.
“It’s about this time off request you put in on Monday. I’m not so sure I can sign off on it.” His face was placid, but his posture was anything but.
“And why would that be?” She listed off her reasons on her fingers. “I’m one of your
top performers, I never miss a deadline, and I’m here early and stay late. I don’t think I’ve ever taken a vacation the entire time I’ve been employed by you, either. I have three weeks of time accumulated, and we’re off between Christmas and New Year’s anyway. So what’s the problem?”
Daniel let out a sigh. “It’s just a really long time for you to be gone, kid. I need you around here. Do you think you could take less time?”
Laura smiled sweetly at him. “I have the vacation time available, and frankly, I don’t want to.” Watching Daniel squirm was kind of fun, but she didn’t understand why he was being so weird about letting her take time off.
“Tell you what, Daniel. I’ll take some work with me. How’s that?”
He rubbed his finger over his mustache as he contemplated her offer. “That sounds doable.”
“Then I will do that for you, but…” She watched his posture droop. “I’m only bringing along ONE assignment. This is supposed to be my romantic Christmas break.”
Daniel wrinkled his nose and dismissed her with a wave. “Fine, Ross. I’ll have that to you before Wednesday next week.”
“You know this was all your fault, boss.”
His eyes grew wide. “Oh? How so?”
“You could have assigned the interview to anybody else, and you didn’t, so…”
“I get it. See you tomorrow, Ross.”
Chapter Eighteen
The clock on the bedside table glowed 3:00. It was the middle of the night, and once again Laura was staring at her bedroom ceiling. The only sound in the darkness was Mason’s shallow breathing. Laura glanced over at him sleeping peacefully. The urge to nudge him awake was overwhelming. She wanted someone to share her insomnia with.
Their flight to Zurich was scheduled for Monday, and with each day the trip drew closer, Laura became more anxious.
Finally, she got out of bed. Clearly, lying there did her no good. She paced the bare hardwood in her living room, trying to burn some of her nervous energy. “This is no big deal, Laura,” she whispered to herself. “It’s just a vacation. It’s not like he’s asking you to move in or get married.”
KYLE: A Mafia Romance (The Callahans Book 4) Page 97